


a life with love is a life that's been lived

by LailaLiquorice



Series: look how they shine for you [adventures in a five bedroom house] [2]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Family Bonding, Fluff, Found Family, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Iroh (Avatar) is a Good Uncle, Iroh (Avatar) loves Tea, Light Angst, Panic Attacks, Past Sokka/Yue (Avatar), Sibling Bonding, Toph Beifong and Zuko are Siblings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-09
Updated: 2020-07-09
Packaged: 2021-03-04 17:34:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,576
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25170208
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LailaLiquorice/pseuds/LailaLiquorice
Summary: Zuko is far too surprised by every reminder that his friends actually like him for who he is.Sokka is still grieving a past love while putting everything into creating himself a new future.Katara is trying to reconcile her friends' difficult pasts with the lingering grudge in her own.Toph is learning to accept the help she prides herself on being able to provide her friends.Aang is keeping them all smiling because he'll never smile again if he doesn't.[or, Volume II of Adventures in a Five Bedroom House - everyone relearns what true family feels like]
Relationships: Iroh & Zuko (Avatar), Sokka/Suki (Avatar), The Gaang & Zuko (Avatar), Toph Beifong & Iroh
Series: look how they shine for you [adventures in a five bedroom house] [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1813702
Comments: 21
Kudos: 394





	a life with love is a life that's been lived

**Author's Note:**

> Sometimes family is just six teenagers and an uncle who can heal everything with a cup of jasmine tea.
> 
> You don't have to have read 'there's a candle' to read this, but it may help you understand everyone's backstories since there are a lot of little facts sprinkled through this fic that were established in volume I :)

Just as Zuko had noticed traces of his friends creeping into his space, he was even more surprised to notice tidbits of his own starting to appear in theirs. It was an unexpected reminder that he existed outside of ‘the guy they’d recruited because they needed the fifth bedroom filled’. What that said about him he didn’t want to contemplate for too long.

The first one he noticed was Sokka’s bedroom; as well as painting in his free time he was also an avid photographer and map enthusiast and had combined those two in the form of a new map tacked up next to his prized scratch map. It depicted the city they lived in, and was covered in little flags that stuck out from the map and pinned photographs to certain places. Over the location of their house was a blue flag and the same photograph of their pamper night which was stuck on Zuko’s wall, there was one of Sokka, Katara, and Aang pinned where they’d all lived in student accommodation the previous year, a selfie of Katara’s grinning face and Suki standing over Sokka in the background at the infamous rugby tryouts pinned on the university sports hall, and many others including the one that had caught Zuko’s eye. There was a red flag pinned over a building on the high street and a blurry photo of Zuko and Sokka sat talking at a table.

“When was that taken?” he asked, interrupting Sokka’s rambling about Suki’s latest rugby game which he’d unintentionally zoned out of when he started looking at the map.

Sokka let out a confused “Huh?” before he noticed what Zuko was pointing at. “Oh, that was the pub where you met us for the first time! You didn’t seem like you’d like taking a selfie with a guy you’d just met so I got Katara to take it sneakily – sorry about that. I’d have deleted if it you didn’t move in with us. You don’t mind right?”

While he wasn’t normally completely comfortable having his photo taken, Zuko was surprised to find that he didn’t mind in the slightest. Instead he was slightly touched by Sokka’s determination to make him his friend back at their first meeting. “No, I don’t mind. Thank you Sokka,” he said, giving a small smile.

“Hey, don’t thank me for being your friend. I’ve done it for everyone,” Sokka rebuked him, walking over to point out the numerous photos over their university campus. There was one of Aang and Sokka wearing matching ridiculous capes which Zuko assumed was taken at some sort of club social event, and another one of Toph punching Sokka in the arm while Teo laughed in the background of the mechanics lab. 

The smile remained on Zuko’s face as he looked at their friends – _his friends_ – laughing in little moments that might have gone unremembered if it weren’t for Sokka’s insistence that his friends record everything. A lot of the photos were silly candids and blurry selfies but there were a few that had been taken properly; a photo of Sokka and Suki kissing pinned over a café near the campus and one of Sokka in his ice hockey uniform posing outside the ice rink. He found another one of himself too, Toph riding on his back piggyback style on the day Zuko had accidentally startled her and she’d twisted an ankle as a result. But easily his favourite photo was just the top half of Toph’s face with a cheeky expression, clearly her attempt at taking a selfie after stealing Sokka’s phone.

As much as Zuko loved the photos though, there was a question in his mind about why Sokka made such an effort to display the photos that most people would just let live in their phones forever and an answer he already suspected. “Why do you do it?” he asked, “I think most people wouldn’t bother taking photos of just little moments.”

A wistful, faraway smile appeared on Sokka’s face. At first he didn’t answer, just pulling another photo from his desk drawer that was dog-eared from being handled so much and handing it to Zuko; a much younger Sokka with a white-haired girl who he somehow immediately knew was Yue. Understanding clicked in Zuko’s mind as Sokka whispered “Because you never know how long you have left before little moments are all you’ve got to remember people by.”

* * *

The noise of Sokka’s music through his headphones was so loud that he didn’t hear anyone approaching him while working in the mechanics lab until Toph’s voice sounded right next to him. “What’s up Snoozles?” she yelled.

“Argh!” Sokka shrieked as he dropped his spanner on his foot, hopping around in pain for a few seconds as Toph and Teo laughed. “Hi Toph,” he sighed, taking off his headphones and not bothering to pick the spanner up since he’d just been using it to poke parts of his project in moody defeat for the last ten minutes.

“Someone’s sounding down in the dumps,” she commented, hopping up onto Sokka’s work stool and swinging her legs contentedly. Sokka always appreciated how at home she could make herself feel in the lab since befriending him and Teo. “Katara mentioned you were hitting a wall so thought I’d come and shake you out of it.”

He smiled at that, taking his safety glasses off and half-throwing them onto his desk. “Aren’t you meant to be working too?” he asked Teo. Their prototypes for that term’s grade were due in a month and the workbench next to Sokka’s where Teo was stationed looked surprisingly clean.

“I made a breakthrough yesterday and stayed in late so I don’t need to work today to keep on target,” Teo said, and Sokka made an impressed noise. Even though Teo had admitted to him over a coffee break that his dad was an engineer and he’d been working with tools far before university, Sokka was always awestruck by his friend’s ingenuity and creative talent. “Besides, me and Toph needed to sort out the paperwork from this week’s disability meeting so we can get an open letter circulating asap. We’re trying to get the uni to enforce all professors recording their lectures.”

Sokka hummed, knowing without needing to ask what had sourced that campaign. Dr Pakku was one of Katara’s Marine Biology lecturers and had a reputation for being stubborn and old-fashioned when it came to accepting accessibility requirements. Katara complained about his misogyny on a regular basis.

Nodding at Teo’s explanation, Toph added “Plan is to get the signed letter to the principal before Christmas so that they can close the loopholes before January. New year new era and all that. Anyway, what’s wrong with your Thingy?”

‘Thingy’ was what Toph referred to his prototype by, and Sokka groaned as he turned to look at it sat sadly on his desk. “I don’t know. I’ve tried going back through my blueprints but it’s not helping, I can’t work out what I’ve missing,” he complained, picking his spanner off the floor for the sole purpose of giving it another unsatisfied poke.

Teo nodded sagely. “Do you want to know what I do in this situation?” he asked, and Sokka grinned eagerly. “Show Toph what you’ve been doing.”

Sokka blinked. “But-“ he started, his gaze jumping between a smug-looking Teo and Toph’s sightless eyes. “No offense Toph but I dunno if there’s any… point? To that?” His voice was hesitant, very aware that he was being drawn into a joke and not wanting to metaphorically stick his foot in his mouth.

“Not if you show me like a sighted person there’s not,” Toph retorted in an amused tone, her face never leaving Sokka’s. “I can’t see what you’ve done so you have to tell me. Go right back to the start and build it in my head. You can’t find where you’ve gone wrong because you spend your whole existence looking at your Thingy so you’re gonna miss stuff. It’s one of those things I can see that you can’t.”

Her last comment was when Sokka realised she was right – there were many things that she could see in a way that he and his abled friends couldn’t. Those included which one of her friends was approaching before they’d even opened the door, if someone was lying, and perhaps the missing piece of his prototype was one of those too. “Y’know, that reminds me of what the computer science students do,” he thought aloud, “their lab is full of rubber ducks for people to explain their code to when they get stuck. Maybe we should ask to borrow one, eh?” The question was directed to Teo who laughed at the idea.

Toph shrugged. “I guess you’ve got me as your rubber duck for now,” she said, looking pleased with herself.

“Well then, get comfy and we’ll see if this works!” he grinned. She opened her hands in a wordless request so Sokka handed her the prototype to feel, then picked up his work record to start from the beginning.

By the end of the week, harmony had been restored to the mechanics lab. Toph had found two missing pieces in Sokka’s prototype, he and Teo had hit their weekly deadlines, and Teo had found the time to obtain a rubber duck and attach it to one of Toph’s headbands. It was kept in its own taped off square on Sokka’s workbench labelled ‘Toph’s Problem-Solving Hat’.

* * *

Katara often commented on how terrible Zuko’s posture was when they were all sat in Toph’s room working on assignments, Zuko remaining hunched over his laptop for hours on end, and eventually he’d complained about back pain once too many times. At that point she’d thrown her hands in the air and declared that until he could learn to take care of himself then he could join her yoga sessions and let her help him. He didn’t get much warning of when she would grab him, just sending him a text at a random time telling him to change into comfy clothes before she’d fetch him from his bedroom five minutes later.

“So,” Katara started when they were both sat on yoga mats in her bedroom, “Where have you been feeling the most pain? And don’t tell me you haven’t been hurting because Toph told me you both have Law coursework due in for the end of the week so I doubt either of you have been taking good care of yourselves.”

Zuko let out a conceding sigh, making the corner of Katara’s lip turn up slightly. “My shoulders have been the worst. And a couple of headaches too but you don’t have to worry about that, it’s been normal since-,” he broke off to gesture at his scar.

The sound of the door handle being slammed down made Zuko jump and accidentally poke himself in his bad eye, a pained hiss escaping clenched teeth. “Oops, sorry Zuko,” Aang said with a sheepish smile. “Are you guys doing yoga? Can I join in?”

“Of course!” Katara smiled, handing him another yoga mat for him to place down besides Zuko’s. “We’ll be working on stretches and techniques for the upper back. Or maybe you could help us meditate for a little while first?” she suggested.

Aang brightened at being given something to do. “Yeah I can do that!” He scrambled into the correct sitting position as Zuko did the same a little slower, and he was met with a surprised look when Zuko glanced back at him. “I didn’t know you knew how to meditate,” he commented, a curious tone to his voice which was Aang’s calmer way of begging him for answers.

Zuko nodded. “My Uncle would show me how to meditate when I was recovering from what happened,” he explained, relieved that both of them knew the story behind his scar so he didn’t need to delve into any further details. He cupped his hands in his lap as he continued “Sometimes when I was feeling ok he would put a lit tealight in my hands like this to help me with the fear. Feeling warmth on any part of my body was impossible at the start and it helped a lot.”

“Hey that’s great!” Aang said with a beaming smile that Zuko managed to return. “I guess I don’t need to show you what to do then. Katara let me help you.”

His voice faded into the background as Zuko took his cue to begin meditating. He closed his eyes and focused on his breathing, feeling the rise and fall of his chest which had been fundamental at the start of his recovery to remind himself that he was alive. If he could concentrate on his breathing more than his pain then he was still in control. He was still alive.

A few minutes passed before Katara brought them all back to the present, giving them a yoga positon to practise while she fetched them all a drink from the kitchen. Katara had been trying for over a week to get Zuko into a bow pose – lying on his stomach with his arms behind him and hands holding his ankles – but he remained too nervous to try it properly in case he overbalanced forwards and landed on his face. Aang’s flexibility meant he pulled off the pose on his second try, but a glance over at Zuko made him tilt his head in concern and ask “Will you let me help you?”

Zuko grumbled quietly under his breath, bracing an elbow on his mat so that he could talk without needing to concentrate. “It’s not that my body won’t do the pose it’s that my mind won’t let me,” he growled, trying not to snap at Aang since he was only trying to help him.

“Oh! In that case if I pull your shoulders back then you won’t need to worry you’re going to hurt yourself!” Aang said as if he’d found the solution to everything, ignoring Zuko’s protests to jump to his feet and walk behind his mat. Zuko felt Aang’s slender hand close around the wrist still holding his ankle first though the spike of fear didn’t come until he’d grabbed hold of Zuko’s other bicep, using an unexpected level of strength to pull his shoulders backwards and his supporting arm off the floor.

“A- Aang! What are you doing!” Zuko yelled, his eye wide and staring at the floor which loomed a foot or so below his chin. “If you drop me I swear to god- ah! You’re not helping as much as you think you-“

In the panic of chaos of Aang trying to help him Zuko let go of the foot he was still holding onto. Pain flared in his toes as they smacked into Katara’s bedside table, the thud combined with the sound of glass chinking as her nail polishes rattled together. Aang’s hands disappeared from around Zuko’s arms at his shout of pain. Zuko braced himself for an agonising collision as he couldn’t bring his arms back in front of him in time, but then there was a heavy weight on his back and a restraining arm flung around his neck. The blue arrow on the hand braced against ground told him it was Aang who had thrown himself down to save him.

Zuko’s head turned to look into Aang’s shocked face above him just as the door opened and Katara came rushing in. Her eyebrows raised as she took in the sight before her – Zuko lying face-down with Aang sprawled on top of his back and one arm around Zuko’s neck – and just shook her head. “Boys!” she muttered loudly, amusement tampering with her initial frustration.

A groan escaped Zuko’s mouth as Aang rolled off his back and he sat up to massage his throat from the impact. Aang’s eyes were massive as he looked between Katara and Zuko and the chaos he’d caused, and gave them another guilty smile.

* * *

There were nine hours until her Law paper was due. And Toph was walking into a coffee shop.

She did have her laptop with her in her rucksack but she wasn’t intending on using it; Katara had suggested that she and Zuko both take some time off during the day so that they wouldn’t spend every second reading and rereading their essays until the midnight essay. While Zuko had barely restrained from shouting her down, Toph had needed no further encouragement. She’d reached a point where the words blurred together every time she turned her audio descriptor on so was very aware that she needed some time to reset her head.

The coffee shop in question wasn’t one she’d been to before since it wasn’t on the usual route she walked between home and campus, but she’d been seeking a distraction and some fresh air so was content to let her feet lead her wherever they felt like it. The smell of coffee and pastries wafted past her just as her stomach gave a timely rumble so Toph took that as fate to stop for a while. There were no stairs to get into the shop, something she could appreciate, so paused when her cane nudged the door and pushed it open to the sound of a bell ringing.

“Come in!” sounded a cheerful voice, and Toph followed it to stand by what she assumed was the service counter. “I don’t believe I’ve seen you here before. Would you like to see a menu?” he asked.

Toph winced inwardly at that, knowing that she was about to make the poor barista incredibly awkward when she revealed her disability. “Uh, no I haven’t been in before. It’s probably a long shot but have you got a Braille menu? I’m blind,” she explained, keeping her voice deliberately neutral and devoid of any accusatory tone she might have held in her younger years.

To her surprise, there was no change to the man’s body language to suggest that he was nervous. “Well then, welcome to the Jasmine Dragon! I actually do have a Braille menu I can offer you, but you’ll need to give me a moment to remember where I keep it.”

She had nothing to reply to that for all of the two minutes it took for the barista to find his Braille menu. There wasn’t much that left Toph speechless but somehow the kindness of this stranger had left her truly touched.

“Here we are!” he said as his footsteps came hurrying back towards her, holding out the menu for her to take. “I’ll give you a few moments to choose what you’d like since it is your first time here. It’s always quiet at this time of day so you’re not hurrying me at all.”

Toph nodded, running her fingertips across the tea section of the menu to find something to her liking. “This is going to sound awkward but I have to say thank you. This is the first time that I’ve been given a Braille menu somewhere, I normally don’t even bother asking anymore. So thank you,” she said somewhat hesitantly, giving him a genuine smile.

The barista rumbled a laugh low in his voice, a comforting sound which made Toph like him even more. “Please don’t thank me for doing what any good business should do. My nephew is blind in one eye, you see, so while he doesn’t need to use it, it did occur to me that there will be customers who will.”

“He’s lucky he has such a good uncle then. I don’t think my parents would do something like that,” she commented with only a hint of sadness. She moved her finger back and forth between two options as she debated on her drink choice before adding “And I’d like the house jasmine tea please. I’ve got an essay due in at midnight so I could do with the brain power boost.”

“An excellent choice in any circumstance. But especially this one!”

After passing her the card reader to pay she chose a bar stool to sit at and dropped her rucksack to the floor, listening to the hiss of steam from boiling water as he made her tea. The whole shop had a comforting atmosphere, the quiet sound of xylophone music playing in the background and the faint sound of tapping as what she presumed were other university students working at tables. It was close enough to campus to assume that the student population made up most of the customers. And especially with someone as kind as this man there; after long days of fighting through lecture material and battling for a place in the library, a little kindness could make every burden seem so much lighter.

The chink of porcelain told her that her drink had been placed upon the counter, but she was surprised at the sound of a second cup being placed down. “Here is your tea, miss. I took the opportunity to make one for myself too since the house jasmine is a favourite of mine. I hope you don’t think me presumptuous but there is truly no greater joy than sharing tea with a stranger,” the barista said, his words accompanied by the skid of a stood being pulled up to the other side of the counter.

Toph shook her head. “I don’t mind. It’s nice, actually. I haven’t talked to many people other than my housemates all week while doing this coursework,” she admitted, taking a sip of her tea. It wasn’t often that she opened up to people so soon upon meeting them but there was something about the way that he left her room to talk that prompted her to continue. “It’s been hard not to get frustrated with them to be honest. They all want to help but I just have to get this done by myself, there’s not much they can do.”

The barista hummed. “You sound like my nephew,” he said with another rumbling laugh, and Toph put her cup down to listen. “For many years he was convinced that he had to do everything alone and to ask for help was a failure on his part. But, I told him, we are all only human. Every one of us has different skills and different perspectives. If you don’t let anyone help you then you will miss out on what other people can offer you. And every encounter you have can offer you something,” he said.

“I hadn’t thought of it like that before,” Toph realised aloud. She’d known to some extent that different people could solve different problems since she would often talk to a different housemate of hers depending on what was troubling her, and her ability to help Sokka and Teo with their engineering projects. But she hadn’t considered that she was losing out by not letting people help her. “I guess there’s still part of me that thinks I have to do everything by myself or I’m not keeping up with other people,” she said with a shrug. Accepting that she didn’t have to work twice as hard to compete with able bodied people had been a fundamental part of coming to terms with blindness and something she could acknowledge she still struggled with sometimes.

He let her sit quietly with that thought for a few moments before pointing out “Changes like that take some getting used to. Progress is not linear. Every step forwards is still a pace ahead of where you could be even if you do slip backwards.” There was another pause as he sipped his tea. “May I ask what your coursework is about? My nephew has a tendency to pull away when he is overworked and I am sometimes left feeling very helpless. Let an old man do something other than make tea for a little while.”

Toph smiled as she reached down for her rucksack. “It’s an introduction to plagiarism and copyright law,” she explained, tapping in the passcode and disabling the voice command function before turning the screen around to face him. “It’s finished but proofreading it is hard, I can only listen to the audio translator for so long. And I’m worried that it’s missed stuff.” Sentence structure was something that she struggled with, always wary of putting a punctuation mark in the wrong place since they made very little difference to her.

“Well in that case, may I have a little look for you?” he asked.

“I’d like that. Thank you,” Toph said. She was quiet for a little moment as he glanced through her work before a thought occurred to her and she burst out “Wait, I don’t even know your name!”

He laughed at that. “Well, that can be fixed. My name is Iroh. It is a pleasure to meet you.”

“I’m Toph. It’s nice to meet you too. Thank you for the tea and the advice, they’ve both really helped.”

A short while passed in mostly silence, Iroh telling her where he would add a comma or combine two sentences every once in a while and Toph deciding whether to make the changes or not. She was a little lost in thought of how much she’d appreciated his presence such a short while after meeting him in comparison to the ‘help’ that her parents had attempted to give her, and couldn’t help but interrupting him with “Hey, Iroh? Maybe you should tell your nephew that you need him too sometimes.”

She didn’t need her sight to hear the smile in Iroh’s voice. “Yes. I think I will do that.”

* * *

The sports hall had been closed for maintenance that week, meaning that Suki’s scheduled rugby practise had needed to be cancelled. Normally that would have left her with nothing much to do but unwillingly go back to her Sport Physio coursework in lieu of her afternoon off. But that particular Wednesday found her stood outside the local gym along with Katara, who had also been evicted from the dance studio for the same reason, waiting for someone to let them through the doors.

Sure enough, they weren’t kept waiting for long before the door was thrown open and only Suki’s rugby-honed instincts kept her from jumping out of her skin. “Good afternoon new students!” Toph shouted, cracking her knuckles above her head.

“Afternoon Toph,” Suki chuckled, shouldering her sports bag as she and Katara were lead through the gym. Suki knew her way around since she’d gone occasionally during her first year, but since taking up Captaincy of the rugby team she hadn’t found herself with the time. Despite her initial frustration at the change of plans she was surprised to find herself excited with the prospect of a new challenge.

Judo was the only martial art included in the Paralympic games, so Toph had chosen it as her sport since there were easy guidelines to put her on a level playing field with sighted contestants. Suki had practised the art as a child until she went to university and rugby took over, and the two of them had been promising a sparring match for months. After a quick warm-up, Katara sat down to watch as Suki and Toph stepped onto the mats and face each other.

“Arms on each other’s shoulders,” the gruff voice of their referee said; he had been introduced to Suki as just ‘The Boulder’ which she guessed was a wrestling name.

Suki glanced back at Toph hesitantly before she moved forwards to place Suki’s hands on her shoulders. “This is our starting position so I know where you are,” Toph explained, resting her own hands lightly on Suki’s upper arms.

“Shouldn’t Suki wear a blindfold or something?” Katara called from her vantage point.

“Not yet, she’s out of practise,” Toph said. For a moment Suki thought she was trying to go easy on her for that, but then a wicked grin split Toph’s face and that hope vanished. “Sight won’t be enough to stop me beating her. We’ll get a blindfold on her later.”

There was only time for Suki to laugh nervously before the Boulder gave them the cue to fight. Sure enough, within a minute or so Suki had been thrown heavily onto the mat and Toph was looking down at her triumphantly.

“You lasted longer than some people would,” she commented, holding out a hand to help pull Suki to her feet. “C’mon Katara, let’s go through basics to get you started and Suki refreshed.”

By the end of their session, Katara had been put through her paces in learning the basic formations and Suki’s muscle memory had been tested by Toph’s enviable reflexes. Her sense of victory when she finally got Toph onto the mat only lasted a second before she declared that was exactly what she’d been waiting for, and she’d been forced to wear a blindfold for every sparring match from then on.

* * *

There had been no second thought in Zuko’s mind when Sokka had mentioned to him that his dad was going to be in town and would he mind if he came to the house briefly in the afternoon. Sokka had seemed so excited, uncharacteristically so with the exception of when he saw Suki unexpectedly, and Zuko had spent more time laughing at him than thinking about what he’d said.

But then there was a man sat in their living room area when he got home from his café shift, and dread clenched in his stomach as if someone was squeezing his organs.

“Hey Zuko!” Katara called as she saw him, removing the chance of him being able to sneak upstairs unseen. He nudged his shoes into the rack with a lot more care than he would usually take and hung up his coat before practically tip-toeing to stand in the doorway. “This is our dad, Hakoda.”

Hakoda smiled as he stood up, and Zuko tried hard not to let himself flinch as he realised just how tall he was. “Hello Zuko, I presume you must be the last housemate,” Hakoda said, holding out a hand.

That was enough for Zuko to startle for real, but he pulled himself together quickly to shake his hand. “Hello Mr Hakoda,” he stammered out. Looking him in the eye felt impossible so he forced himself not to quiver at the feeling of eyes boring into the top of his head.

“Just Hakoda is fine,” he chuckled, and Zuko managed to smile at that. He knew the rules; take their lead with expressing emotions, always stay one step behind, go unnoticed. Stay unnoticed like his life depended on it.

Everyone else was settled comfortably on the sofa or armchairs so he knew it would be too risky for him to try making a getaway. Instead he perched on the arm of the chair that Toph was occupying; positioned so he could keep watch of Hakoda’s movements at all times, his back to the wall so no one could surprise him, and nothing between him and the door so that a getaway was still on the cards if things turned nasty. Aang’s voice called from the kitchen to ask if he wanted a cup of tea, and he managed to return an answer without his voice catching in his throat too much. He could do this. He could do this.

For a long while they spoke about university, Zuko mostly keeping quiet and using the mug in his hands that Aang had brought to prevent him from twisting his fingers together in a show of anxiety. Every so often Hakoda would surprise him by looking him directly in the eye and asking him a question about his own studies, where he would startle every time and attempt to force out an answer despite his tongue feeling like lead. He was glad that Toph shared half his lectures and was sitting next to him after she jumped in to rescue him the third time, taking the pressure of a little and letting Zuko pretend he was talking to just her.

His sense of control started to slip when the conversation shifted to personal matters. Sokka spent an unsurprisingly long amount of time talking about Suki and updating his father on how the rugby league was going and how she was doing in her physio course now that she was nearing the end of her first three years and looking at physio placement options. Zuko just thought it was sweet, but it became increasingly clear that Katara didn’t share the sentiment.

“Come on Sokka, Dad didn’t come all this way to hear about someone else’s child. Give me a look in!”

The comfortable atmosphere in the room disappeared as everyone turned to look at Katara. There was a teasing smile on her face as she looked at a dismayed Sokka, but that fell quickly as no one laughed. “Katara,” Hakoda said in a cold voice, “Please don’t take away Sokka’s joy in telling me about his girlfriend. I want to hear about whatever makes you both happy.”

Zuko was begging Katara in his head to accept what her dad said and stay quiet. But of course Katara didn’t do that. “Hey, I was only joking. But even so you’re not letting me get a word in edgeways!” she argued back, blue eyes flashing.

“Katara what’s the big deal? I’m just telling dad something that’s exciting for me, you’ll get your turn talking to dad,” Sokka said. He didn’t sound angry like Katara did, there was just a slight note of warning in his voice as if he had been in that position a thousand times over.

But even Sokka’s refusal to match Katara’s tone wasn’t enough to stop the inevitable. “That’s enough! Both of you!” Hakoda snapped, swinging his head to look between Sokka and Katara. “Let’s not argue. I didn’t come all this way for you two to fight in front of your- Zuko, are you ok son?”

The terror that had been slowly wrapping its way around Zuko’s limbs like a snake preparing to strangle its prey suddenly constricted at the attention switching to him. For a brief second he felt like he couldn’t breathe. “I-,” he forced out, throat going dry to prevent any further words from coming out. The cup of tea he’d forgotten about was upturned from his lap and smashed on the floor as he jumped up from his chair and fled up the stairs.

Silence was left in his wake until Toph spoke up. “Nice job you two,” she shouted at Katara and Sokka, not caring that their dad was sat opposite her, “You had to go and forget that Zuko’s obviously not going to cope with this!”

Sokka hung his head. “We messed up,” he admitted, ignoring his dad’s confused face to look at Katara. “We still good?”

“Yeah, we’re still good,” Katara said. There was a sad smile on his face as she got to her feet and opened her arms, squeezing Sokka tightly when he accepted her hug.

“Well I’m glad you two are good but one of you should probably go and check on Zuko,” Toph pointed out, still sounding indignant.

Katara nodded. “You’re right,” she sighed, aware she had to go and fix the mistake she had made. Aang had already started to clear up the smashed cup, so after giving him a hand to pick up all the slivers of porcelain she headed upstairs and knocked on Zuko’s door.

There was no response when she called his name. Worry took over and she slowly pushed open the door, peering through the crack to see Zuko sat hunched over on the end of his bed and his cigarette lighter lit in his hands. Not wanting to startle him, she whispered “Hey, it’s me,” softly before closing the door behind her.

“What were you thinking,” he asked in a raw voice as she walked closer to him.

She stopped. “What do you mean?”

Zuko looked up then, and Katara could see heavy tear tracks down both cheeks and scared golden eyes. “What were you doing?” he repeated, his tone full of wild disbelief. “You- You argued with him about Sokka! Didn’t you think?”

Katara’s eyes were wide as she watched him put the lighter down and cradle his head in his hands, his breathing growing more erratic by the second. “Zuko I don’t know what you mean,” she said softly, crouching down beside him and resisting the urge to place a comforting hand on his knee. “That was barely a proper argument for me and Sokka, we used to fight all the time.” Part of her was surprised that Zuko was so blindsided by that since he had a younger sister, but the other part of her remembered the story Zuko had told her and could only wonder what their sibling relationship was like.

“No no no,” Zuko groaned, shaking his head. “You talked back at your father! Why did you put us all in danger like that?”

The penny dropped then, and it felt like a punch to the gut. Of course Zuko had reacted badly to hearing a father shout. Katara felt like a terrible friend for forgetting.

His shaking grew even stronger as he continued. “You shouted and he got angry and you don’t know what he’s gonna do now,” he muttered, his voice growing weaker and weaker as he was clearly spiralling into a panic attack. “A-And I smashed that cup which was bad because they’re Aang’s cups so he should be angry at me too and I was meant to stay under the radar so your dad didn’t notice me and I couldn’t even manage that.”

“Zuko can I touch you?” Katara interrupted him with, relief flooding her when he nodded and let her grasp one of his hands. She was quiet for a few moments after that, reassured to see his breathing calming down a little now that she was holding onto him, before she asked tentatively “You know that our father would never hurt Sokka or I, right? Or anyone else.”

He didn’t respond to that other than shrugging one shoulder.

“Well, I promise that he would never. You’re completely safe here,” she said soothingly, squeezing his hand. “And he’s not really angry either. He just raised his voice to get us to stop arguing, but Sokka’s talking to him now and he won’t do it again. Neither’s Aang, he knows that you didn’t mean to break the cup and accidents happen. It’s ok, I promise you.”

The shallow nod she got in response was enough to bring a smile to her face. “Ok,” he whispered, tears still falling though less of a flood than they had been earlier.

“Ok,” she replied. Downstairs could wait; she was perfectly content to sit with Zuko and hold his hand for as long as he needed her to.

* * *

His dad had left a few hours ago, and Sokka was sat on his bed texting Suki when the hinge on his door creaked. “Can we talk?” Katara asked, reminding him of when they’d both lived with Gran-gran and she would come into his room if something had scared her during the night.

“Course,” Sokka said, shooting a quick ‘brb’ to Suki before putting his phone down and patting the space on the bed next to him. “What’s up?”

She sighed as she sat down, taking a couple of seconds to breathe before she turned to look at him. “I need to apologise properly for earlier. I was just joking at first but I guess I didn’t realise that I was actually really frustrated. And I don’t think I was frustrated with you.”

Sokka let that sit in the air for several seconds. He knew that she and him had very different relationships with their dad so it was hard for him to put himself in her shoes, but he knew that his sister was hurting and that was what he was focusing on. “Hey even if you were frustrated with me you can still come in here and tell me about it. Talk to me, what’s up?” he reassured her.

It took Katara a good minute and multiple false starts before she burst out with “I still don’t think I’ve forgiven dad for leaving.”

His eyes widened for a second in surprise, before he just nodded. “Ok. What’s made you think that?”

“Because whenever I’m with him now I feel so possessive of him. Like I have to make the most out of every single second with him otherwise he’s going to go again and there’ll be things I’ve forgotten to say,” she said miserably. “Which is why I flipped out at you today because I felt like I wasn’t getting to talk and I’m so sorry that I took that out on you. And Suki. And everyone else because they had to listen to us fight.”

Sokka lifted up his arm and smiled when she scooted closer to rest her head on his collarbone. They’d often sat like that in the days after their dad left, clinging to each other since they were all they had left. “I get that,” he said. “I know we both felt really differently about him leaving and that we’ve got really different connections with him now. I’ll try to make sure I remember that next time he’s here.”

“And I’ll try not to get so jealous too. He’s your dad too and you deserve to get to share stuff with him,” Katara returned.

They smiled at each other for a second, then Sokka switched the topic and they talked about other things for a few minutes. But Katara didn’t go back to her own bedroom immediately after leaving him to get back to his conversation with Suki. Zuko’s door was slightly ajar and she could hear quiet voices inside; it was Toph who told her to come in when she knocked. She was sat pressed up against Zuko’s side on his bed, a game console on his lap which was emitting soft sounds.

“Hey,” she said as she walked into Zuko’s room for the second time that day. “Just wanted to check if you were ok, and to say sorry I guess. I wasn’t thinking much earlier.”

Toph smirked. “I think someone might’ve forgotten that not everyone has a happy parental relationship like she does,” she pointed out, her tone closer to teasing than true nastiness.

Katara had to laugh along with the two of them. She could admit the analogy was true, and it was something she needed to give more thought considering who she lived with. “I know, and I’m genuinely sorry Zuko.”

He gave her a small smile that took the weight of the world off her shoulders. “It’s alright. Thank you for sitting with me afterwards,” he said, sounding tired. She realised then that the stress of the afternoon must have taken a toll on him, which was probably why he was leaning on Toph more than he would have ever done otherwise. “Hakoda spoke to me later and apologised too.”

“I’m glad. I don’t want this to ever happen again,” Katara vowed. Zuko was fully yawning then so she left them to it, glad that they both had someone they could trust for support in navigating the minefield that was difficult parents.

* * *

Toph had insisted on dragging them all to the coffee shop she’d started frequenting. The manager was so kind, she insisted, and the tea was the best tea that she’d ever tasted in her life. Plus, it was nearing the end of term and the approaching deadlines in nearly all subjects were making everyone increasingly stressed, so Toph decided on everyone’s behalf that they were entitled to an afternoon off. The only one who wasn’t with them was Zuko as he was working, but the rest of the household and Suki were all trailing behind her as she lead the way into the shop.

The barista waved as they entered the shop, and Sokka assumed he had to be the manager that she’d been talking about. “Hello Toph! It is nice to see you again. And hello Toph’s friends too! What a wonderful surprise on a quiet afternoon.”

“Hi Iroh,” Toph grinned, walking up to the service counter. “These are the rest of my housemates. Sokka, Katara, Aang, and Suki, meet Iroh.” Sokka smiled as his name was said and Iroh passed kindly eyes over him; it had been less than a minute but he could already see why Toph had warmed up to him.

“It is lovely to meet you all at last,” Iroh said. “Will it be the house jasmine again for you Toph? And what would the rest of you like to drink?”

Toph nodded as Sokka glanced over the menu printed on the wall, eventually deciding on his drink order and buying a couple of slices of cake for them to share between them too. He was the only one who was relatively calm about university work since he was nearly finished with his prototype, so he was very happy to treat his friends to something on their break.

They had settled down at a table near the counter when a familiar voice made them all look up in confusion. “Uncle! Is the coffee with the same order as the teas? I’m halfway through cleaning the espresso machine so it might take a little longer than the rest of the… uh… guys?” Zuko stopped in his tracks behind the service counter, wearing an apron and a blank expression.

There was silence for a couple of seconds as everyone looked at each other. Then several people spoke at once.

“You know these people?” Iroh asked Zuko.

Katara, Sokka, and Aang all said at the same time “Iroh’s your Uncle?”

Toph’s voice was the loudest as she yelled at Iroh “Your nephew is Zuko?”

Another beat of silence later and they were all laughing at the sudden surprise. “Ok, I think we ought to clear everything up,” Iroh said, opening the gate in the counter and beckoning for Zuko to follow him to the table. “Yes, I am Zuko’s Uncle, which by extension makes him my nephew. I met your friend Toph a couple of weeks ago now.” The last sentence was directed at Zuko, who looked as though he was just starting to get over his shock.

“Uh… Uncle, these are my housemates. Apart from Suki, she’s Sokka’s girlfriend. I, uh, I guess you all know where I work now,” Zuko admitted with a shrug, a small smile appearing on his face as he introduced them.

“Wait. So it’s here you bring leftovers from when you make dinner on Wednesdays?” Katara asked, eyes narrowed, but she grinned when Zuko nodded sheepishly. “Iroh, your recipes are amazing!”

Iroh’s smile crinkled at the corner of his eyes. “Why, thank you very much. My nephew did tell me that I’ve been feeding you all by extension once a week. You must all come over for dinner one day so I can have the pleasure of cooking for you all properly.”

When Iroh and Zuko returned behind the counter to make them their drinks and everyone else started talking again, Aang stayed quiet as he watched the normally so pensive Zuko interacting with his Uncle. There was a freedom in his movements which Aang didn’t think he’d ever noticed before; it was certainly worlds away from how he’d acted around Hakoda. He thought back to the awful story that Zuko had told them in the middle of the night, trying to imagine the man currently making Aang’s tea running into a hospital with a teenager, _a child_ , cradled in his arms. There was something about Iroh’s expression when Zuko wasn’t looking that made the two easy to reconcile in his mind.

Aang had never known his biological parents, but there was something about the way he looked at his nephew that reminded Aang so strongly of Father Gyatso. Protection and pride and fatherly love. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d been so relieved as he did with the knowledge that this was who had taken care of following Zuko’s accident and the alteration of his life’s path.

Iroh and Zuko left an ‘on break’ sign on the counter to come and join them at their table when they brought the tea and cake. “So Iroh, how did you end up with the café here?” Suki asked, sipping at her ginseng tea. “Zuko mentioned when everyone moved in that he’s not from around here so was it a coincidence you both ended up in the same city?”

Chuckling, Iroh shook his head. “No, not a coincidence at all. I had a coffee shop in the city we lived in until a year or so ago, and when Zuko chose where he wanted to come for university I sold up the shop and moved here with him. For my benefit not his I can assure you,” he added, meeting Zuko’s embarrassed smile with a fond one of his own.

“That’s really sweet!” Katara sighed, her soft expression dropping when Toph stepped on her foot and muttered about being overly mushy.

Iroh only laughed again. “We’ve seen too much through together to be separated when there was really no need. Do you kids not miss your families?” he asked, eyebrows knitted as he glanced around the table.

Suki shrugged. “I love my parents but I needed my own space to grow up. I still spend all my holidays with them though and they know they can call me anytime,” she said. Sokka and Katara both nodded since that was pretty much their relationship with their dad.

“I didn’t know my parents, I was given away by my parents and raised in a boys’ home in the community,” he supplied. That was new information for everyone except Katara and Sokka so he wasn’t surprised to see more surprised faces than just Iroh’s. “The monks who looked after us were like my family though and I write them a lot of letters. But it wasn’t the same as everyone else talks about growing up in a typical family.”

“Well my parents suck and I love not having to live with them anymore,” Toph said. Aang had a suspicion that her loud voice and brash tone were a coverup for what she felt on the inside.

Iroh nodded as they all answered his question, a look of slight sadness in his face. “Well in that case I feel we will need to push forward that dinner I promised. You all sound like you could do with a proper home cooked meal,” he said with a rumble of quiet laughter.

There was a look of true happiness on Zuko’s face as the rest of them all nodded eagerly; whenever he had spoken about his Uncle at home it had always been with a level of love and gratitude beyond anything that Zuko expressed for anyone else. Clearly it meant a lot to him that they were meeting the man who had saved his life and could sit round a table drinking tea and laughing alongside him.

To Zuko, after years of feeling untethered and not sure of his place in the universe, it felt suspiciously like the beginnings of a new family.

**Author's Note:**

> Firstly, thank you so so much for everyone's amazing feedback from Volume I. I'm so new to this fandom and for it to shoot to be my second-most bookmarked fic with the third highest number of kudos in a week is incredible. I hope that everyone enjoys Volume II just as much as you did Volume I.
> 
> The theme of finding family was really strong in this one. More Suki and Iroh as promised with some bonus Teo and Hakoda - next time I want to try and give Aang some of the spotlight he deserves since I feel I'm neglecting him a little. Aang and Zuko's attempt at yoga was inspired by their little fight before facing the dragon masters, and Toph and Iroh's conversation aimed to replicate their meeting mid-book 2. 
> 
> If you've got any scenarios you want me to write then please leave a comment to show some love!!! Or come chat to me over at lailaliquorice on tumblr <3


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